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iPad Mini vs Kindle Paperwhite

Introduction

Why have a face off between a tablet and an e-reader you say? Since purchasing a iPad Mini my constant question has been, “Do I still need a dedicated e-reader?” Hopefully we can tackle that question and more in our showdown of these two devices.

The Contenders

iPad Mini

Price: From $329Specs: 16GB Wifi

I remember my reaction to the first iPad. I believed the world of computing was about to change significantly… and I was right. Just look at the recent products released by the major computer companies and you will see tablets galore. From Android tablets to Microsoft betting the farm on the touchscreen based Windows 8, tablets are the new PC for the average user.

So, why create a smaller iPad? I have owned every iPad since the first generation. When I bought the iPad mini I wasn’t expecting to be as taken by it as I have become. It is my single most favorite device I have ever owned. Holding a full size iPad after owning a mini feels like a laborious frivolous task. It has completely replaced my 3rd generation iPad, but can it replace my dedicated e-reader? That is the question.

Kindle Paperwhite

Price: From $119Specs: 2GB Wifi

With a screen that looks a good as any paperback novel the Kindle Paperwhite is the best e-reader I have ever owned. I have owned a total of three kindles and of the three this outshines the previous generations hands down. It is the Ferrari of e-readers, yet having a dedicated device just for books can feel antiquated in the midst of a world of smartphones and tablets.

The Face Off

Hardware

The Kindle Paperwhite and the iPad Mini actually feel very similar in the hand. The significant differences in this comparison is the screens and battery life. The Kindle Paperwhite has a electronic ink display that looks much like real paper. The other benefit is that with electronic ink, the battery is only used in changing pages, not displaying them. This allows the Kindle Paperwhite to have battery life that lasts up to a month while a iPad mini is around 10-12 hours. Along with fantastic battery life and a paper like display, the Kindle Paperwhite includes a front lit display for night reading. Amazon is so confident in the light that they claim most will leave it on all day. I personally do just that, it makes the page look whiter and the text blacker. The electronic display is also perfect for outdoor reading. In fact the display actually looks better with the more light you shine on it.

The iPad Mini’s 12 hours of battery is actually huge for an average tablet. Even its big brother only has 10 hours of battery life. It is more than enough for a full days work and even time for entertainment. The screen however is a different story. Unlike its older sibling the iPad Mini does not have a retina display. A retina display is a screen with enough pixels that you can’t distinguish one pixel for another causing your eyes to see smooth text and clean lines rather than jagged text and blurry lines. It isn’t nearly as big of a deal as the tech world would have you believe but is still significant to mention. Personally I noticed the lack of a retina display a little at first but haven’t missed it since. The iPad Mini also incorporates a few other display enhancements that help make up the difference. The largest problem for any iPad display when comparing against a e-reader is sunlight. With their beautiful glossy displays they are no match for the flaming ball of fire otherwise known as the sun. If you live on the beach or even remotely hope to read outside get an e-reader and not a tablet. Sitting on the beach in cancun trying to squint and read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter on an iPad wrapped in ziplocks while your wife is effortlessly enjoying a real book in the sunlight isn’t fun at all, trust me.

E-Reader

As an e-reader the Kindle Paperwhite is a best of class product. With amazon’s X-Ray feature you can quickly look up who a character is from within the book without leaving your page, great for those epic Game of Thrones type books. This device even has a feature that keeps track of how fast you read in order to provide you with the time left in the chapter and even the whole book. The “time left” feature is my favorite of the bunch. You can do the obvious things; annotate sections, highlight a sentence or paragraph, tap a word and see the definition and more all with the touch of a finger. Page refreshes are much faster than previous models but still noticeably slower than a tablet device or physical book page turn. With the amazon bookstore you are sure to always have great content to put on the device as well.

The iPad mini has the benefit of the App Store. You aren’t tied to one e-reader platform. You have iBooks, Barns and Noble (nook), Sony Reader, Kindle and countless others. Chances are you will find the content you want on one of those various stores. However unlike the Kindle Paperwhite you can’t actually browse and purchase books from the kindle app, you must open your safari browser and purchase the content directly from the content producers website due to the draconian laws of the apple App Store. Once you have your kindle book purchased and your kindle app downloaded you will find all the usuals; highlighting, annotation, word definition lookup. You’ll even find the ever helpful X-ray feature due to a recent update to the kindle app. What you won’t find however is my favorite feature of the Kindle Paperwhite, the “time left” feature. The lack of inclusion of this feature is probably not an oversight, amazon has simply saved its best feature for their own hardware. Overall the iPad Mini can offer a equal or better e-reading experience if you are counting diversity of content and platform agnosticism rather than screen quality or sunny reading excursions.

The Conclusion

I still own both devices but the more I use the iPad Mini, the less that I remember I own a Kinde Paperwhite. The iPads lack of retina display and being useless in sunlight are major drawbacks. However, the ability to have multiple reading apps and the 200,000+ other applications make it one extremely useful device that has thus far replaced my standalone e-reader. I may change my mind when summer comes, but for now I’m using the iPad Mini and loving every minute of it.

3 thoughts on “iPad Mini vs Kindle Paperwhite”

did you try an anti-glare-foil on the iPad? I have one on my iPhone 5, and it´s great for reading, although, I haven´t tried it outside in the sun. That would be interesting to know.
I have been reading hundreds of books on my iPhone, now, for the last 4 years, and I liked it a lot! Now, last week, I got my first Kindle Paperwhite, because everybody told me, it would be so much better than the iPhone.
Well, I don´t think so! When I hold it in my hands, I have the feeling, that it´s a device from 5 years ago. The pages turn too slowly, compared to my iPhone, the text isn´t sharp enough, and I really miss the black-background-white-text, I used that a lot in the dark, and I think it is much more comfortable on the eyes, than the Paperwhite, even if everybody says differetly! I even read a study from some american University, that found out, that there is no difference for the eyes, if you read on a backlit, or on a LED device. It said, people prefer what they are more used to, and I think thats right!
What I´m doing now, is, I wait for the iPad Mini 2 to come out, and hand the Paperwhite down to my boys. My older Son is in 2nd grade, and he reads much better on the Paperwhite, than in an actual book!
The only thing that really pleases me is the battery life.

Thanks Brad, for comparing both devices, that helped me in my decision!